Must meet University requirements (see Graduate Admissions), as well as requirements for admission to the major, listed below.Must meet University requirements (see Graduate Admissions), as well as requirements for admission to the major, listed below.

All international students are required to submit the TOEFL test. Non-native English speaking graduate students must score a minimum of at least 570 on the paper based or a minimum total score of 79 on the internet-based test TOEFL and at least 50 on the TSE to be eligible for a teaching assistantship.

It is expected that candidates for the Ph.D. degree will have completed courses equivalent to those required for the B.S. in Biology at U.S.F.

*Classes not on this list may be used with the approval of the CMMB Graduate Program Director

Research Requirements

71 hours minimum

BSC 7910

Directed Research

32 hours minimum

BSC 7980

Dissertation Research

38 hours minimum

BSC 7936

Ph.D. Seminar

1 hour

Qualifying Exams

All students in the Cell and Molecular Biology Ph.D. program must complete a written and oral qualifying examination.

The written exam shall be in the format of a grant proposal and contain the following sections:

Abstract {300 words}

Specific Aims [1 page]

Background and Significance of topics [4-5 pages]

Proposed research program (conducted over 3 year period) [9-10 pages]

Bibliography (no page limit)

The length of the proposal shall be no more than 15 pages (the abstract and bibliography does not count in the page limit). The topic of the exam shall meet the following guidelines:

The written proposal cannot be based in the same model organism that the student will use to carry out their dissertation research

The written proposal cannot be based on the analysis of the same gene/protein that the student will investigate during their dissertation research

The written proposal cannot be based on the analysis of the same pathway that the student will investigate during their dissertation research

The oral exam is centered around a formal dissertation proposal presentation, followed by a period of questioning by the dissertation advisory committee.

Admission to Candidacy

The doctoral student is eligible for admission to candidacy after completing structured course requirements, passing the qualifying examinations and approval by the supervisory committee. Appropriate forms to document promotion to candidacy must be completed and to the Graduate School. Following admission to candidacy, a student must enroll in BSC 7980 when engaged in research, data collection, or writing activities relevant to the doctoral dissertation. Advisors should assign the number of credits in this course in accordance with policy and appropriate to the demands made on faculty, staff, and University facilities, but in no event will the total number of earned dissertation credits be fewer than 38. Students not admitted to candidacy are not eligible to enroll in BSC 7980.

Dissertation Requirements

The dissertation of all graduate students admitted to a graduate degree program at the University of South Florida must conform to the guidelines of the Handbook for Graduate Thesis and Dissertations available from the USF Graduate School (http://www.grad.usf.edu/thesis.asp).

Doctoral Seminar and Defense

All doctoral students must present a public seminar to the CMMB Department and must be enrolled in BSC 7980, during the semester in which the seminar is given. The seminar should be a concise summary of the research completed to satisfy the requirements for the Ph.D. The seminar is open to the general public and must be announced two weeks prior to the presentation. Upon completion of the seminar, the general public will be invited to ask questions. At the discretion of the student's advisory committee, members of the committee may continue to question the graduate student after the general public has departed the seminar room. Each student is expected to defend his/her research to the unanimous satisfaction of the advisory committee. Following the defense, students will make any editorial modifications to the dissertation as recommended by the advisory committee and submit the dissertation to the Graduate School.

*students should advance to candidacy by the close of the Fall of year 3. . Until candidacy is attained, students must enroll in BSC 7910. Once candidacy has been achieved, students must enroll in BSC 7980, starting with the semester following admission to candidacy.

USF Degree Requirements

Financial Assistance

Registration Process

First, contact your graduate advisor for guidance courses to register for. Obtain any electronic course permit if necessary. Register for the new student orientation online at http://www.grad.usf.edu/orientation.php. Then go to http://oasis.usf.edu/ the link to OASIS, USF's on-line registration system to register for your classes. Follow the directions given on-line.

To access online course materials, students must have a USF NetID (e-mail account). Please visit: https://netid.usf.edu/una/ to obtain your NetID.